My Son, Cham Pa site

My Son is an abandoned ancient Hindu temple complex.  The temples were constructed between the forth and fourteenth century by the Champa kings.  The Champa were forced out of this area to the south after the Chinese invaded, and the location of these temples was lost until M. C. Paris, a French archeologist out hunting, stumbled upon them.

Sadly, after the French found this place, they decided to break the heads off all of the statues and take them back to the Louvre museum.  Then, during the American War, Americans bombed the structures, leveling most of them, in an attempt to kill the Vietcong who were hiding there.  At one point there were over 70 temples here; only a few exist today, though Italian researches are working to rebuild some of the structures.  Interestingly, how exactly the temples were made is still somewhat of a mystery.  For example, the bricks are held together with very little mortar - two competing theories are that either tree resin or clay was used.  Also, it is unclear at what point the bricks were fired - some believe they were fired and then the structures were built, others believe the final firing was done once the structure was assembled.

Picture 1: Map of My Son and our awesome tour guide.
Pictures 2 & 3: Some of the best preserved temples in complex B.
Picture 4: Relief sculptures.  Notice the heads have been removed and have since been restored.
Picture 5: Caryl in the intense heat.
Picture 6: Phallic statue.
Pictures 7-9: More temples.
Picture 10: Bombs dropped by American planes that failed to explode.
Picture 11: Some of the temples haven't been unearthed yet.  Large areas of the complex are unaccessible since they haven't yet been cleaned of mines and unexploded bombs.
Picture 12: Restored temple.
Picture 13 & 14: Restored carvings.
Picture 15: Our tour guide explaining one of the carvings.
Picture 16: Another restored temple.
Picture 17: Crater left by American bombs.
Pictures 18-20: We took a boat ride back to town, stopping again on Cam Kim island to see how boats are made.
Picture 21: Another Vietnamese masterpiece: Caryl waiting for our dinner Bahn Mi sandwiches to be made.  :)